On the night of November 6th, election results were released, cementing Left’s dominance in JNU student politics as the alliance Left Unity swept the central panel. Unlike last time, AVBP was unable to get a hold of a seat in the central panel and especially in the councillor seat of School of International Studies (SIS) or School of Social Sciences (SSS) which it has previously won.
On November 4th, elections for the new Jawaharlal Nehru University’s student union (JNUSU) was held. Many student unions formed panels to fight in the elections, namely the RSS backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (AVBP), Indian National Congress Student Wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and an alliance of All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Students Federation (DSF) named Left Unity. Many smaller organisations and independent candidates also stood in the elections.
The counting began on the night of the 4th November and finished on 6th November night. A total of 5,802 votes were casted of the 9,043, 64% voter turnout. The alliance Left Unity swept all the central posts. For the president position, Aditi Mishra got 1,977 votes, around 33% of the votes, beating the AVBP backed candidate, Vikas Patel by 449 votes. The vice president Kizhakoot Gopika Babu won a staggering 3,101 votes, more than half of the total votes. For the general secretary Sunil Yadav secured 2,005 votes and Danish Ali secured 2,083 votes for the joint-general secretary.
AVBP which had won seats in the last election, was unable to make a comeback in the central panel neither in many of the councillor seats especially SIS or SSS which they had previously won. Asking a JNU student as to why this was the case, they opined that it was due to an increase of violence. They recalled that the SSS general body meeting (GBM) had turned ugly when people started fighting, using abusive and casteist slurs against each other. It turned violent when elected councillor candidates and the JNUSU President were attacked. Another factor that they said was when a FIR was lodged against the students who went to report the above mentioned incident. Due to these incidents the alliance Left Unity was able to consolidate its hold.
The votes being divided in the last election due to two different left alliances was, for many, a major reason as to why ABVP was able to consolidate a seat in the central panel. This time however left organisations were able to come together and form a single alliance. Critics have, however, pointed out that the alliance has sidelined many smaller organisations and accused them for slacking on student issues.
The results have cemented the Left Unity’s dominance in the university’s student politics and has marked a change in its strategy to organise, marking a significant shift from the previous election.
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Image Credits: Times of India
Reva Rawat
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